10 Causes of Leg Cramps

Leg cramps are a pain, literally! It may not always obvious what causes them, but the pain associated with leg cramps makes them nearly impossible to ignore. The Orthopedic Institute team has compiled a list of 10 common causes of leg cramps to help you understand and avoid this pesky problem.

1. Dehydration

Have you been drinking enough water? Dehydration is one of the most common causes of leg cramps. A cramp is an involuntary contraction of a muscle. The fluids in your body allow your muscles to relax, but—when those muscles are dehydrated—they get irritable and prone to cramping. Staying hydrated, especially during physical activity, is an excellent way to avoid leg cramps.

2. Overuse

In addition to dehydration, leg muscles can also cramp from overuse. When doing particularly intense physical activity, the nerves in your spine can become overexcited and fire involuntarily, contracting your muscles and causing a cramp. Those with more sedentary lifestyles may experience muscle overuse from more mild activities such as walking, hiking, gardening. Resting your legs and stretching often will help you avoid cramps from overuse.

3. Fatigue

Your muscles need time to recover. If you use them for extended periods of time without proper rest, the potential for leg cramps is greatly increased. As the muscles in your leg become tired, they become less efficient and require more nutrients than they would if they were rested. Avoid muscle cramps from fatigue by giving your muscles proper rest and conditioning them for any prolonged use.

4. Excessive Sitting or Standing

Bodies are meant to move, so staying in one position, regardless of whether you’re sitting or standing, puts you at greater risk for muscle cramps. Standing for too long can cause your muscles to fatigue, which will increase the likelihood of a cramp. Sitting can leave muscles in the same position for an extended period of time, which can lead them to spasm and cramp. If you sit or stand all day for work, try to alternate between sitting and standing so your body is not in one position for too long.

5. Medications

Certain medications prescribed to treat Alzheimer’s, high cholesterol, asthma, Parkinson’s and osteoporosis have a tendency to cause muscle cramps. If you’re experiencing leg cramps due to medication, talk to your doctor about your pain and possible medication alternatives.

6. Potassium Deficiency

Potassium in the cells of your leg muscles helps the brain tell the muscles when to start and stop contracting. When you have a potassium deficiency, these signals are not relayed properly, and muscle contractions may be prolonged, causing a cramp. Bananas are high in potassium, so adding them to your diet will help maintain proper potassium levels and avoid cramps.

7. Poor Circulation

Poor circulation in your legs can prevent your leg muscles from getting all the oxygen they need to function. This can lead to leg pain, muscle spasms and cramps. Walking, stretching, and wearing compression stockings can all help manage poor circulation in your legs and prevent cramping.

8. Excessive Alcohol Use

The nerves in your leg can be damaged by alcohol abuse. Excessive drinking can alter the levels of thiamine, folate and vitamins B6, B12, and E, which are all needed for your nerves to function properly. This is called alcoholic Neuropathy and can be the cause of leg cramps. Avoiding alcohol can restore the nutritional health of your muscles and stop your legs from cramping.

9. Pregnancy

Women in the third trimester of pregnancy often experience leg cramps, especially in the evening hours. In this case, cramps can be caused by the additional weight of the baby, changes in circulation, and pressure from the baby placed on the nerves in your legs. Regular exercise, leg and or foot massages, and stretching are all ways to prevent leg cramps.

10. Multiple Sclerosis

One of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis is spasticity, a condition which causes certain muscles to be continuously contracted. Multiple sclerosis causes damage to the central nervous system, which can cause spasticity and lead to cramping in the legs. You can manage leg cramping caused by multiple sclerosis through maintaining a healthy diet, stretching and massaging your legs and treating them with hot and cold therapy.

How to Rehydrate and Avoid Dehydration Cramps

If you’ve ever had cramps in your leg muscles or stomach, you know how debilitating the pain can be. From a searing charley horse to stomach pain, cramps can be uncomfortable and disrupt your ability to carry out daily tasks. What you may not know is that dehydration cramps are often the culprit.

We’ll walk you through how dehydration can cause cramps and how to rehydrate to avoid these painful and pesky side effects.

Understanding how to identify risk factors and mild dehydration symptoms is essential — and learning how to combat these impacts as simply drinking water does not solve the issue.

Electrolytes play a major role in rehydrating your body and your muscles, which is why adding an electrolyte drink mix to your water can help you recover more quickly.

Does Dehydration Cause Cramps?

Dehydration is a medical issue caused by your body losing more fluids and electrolytes than it takes in. It can range from cases with mild dehydration symptoms like extreme thirst to severe cases that can be life-threatening.

Losing more fluids and electrolytes than you’re absorbing makes it difficult for your body to function properly. Dehydration can lead to fatigue, decreased urination, extreme thirst, dizziness — and, of course, cramps. In fact, two of the most common signs of dehydration include muscle cramping and stomach cramps.

Here’s why: Your body reacts to dehydration by storing water for the most vital organs, including your heart and lungs. That means less vital organs — like your muscles and digestive system — don’t receive the water and electrolytes required to properly function.

Without these essential fluids, your muscles can start to cramp. You may particularly experience leg cramps in your calf and thigh muscles. You may also experience involuntary contractions like muscle spasms. Dehydration also decreases blood volume, which can also cause cramping as there is less blood flow to organs and muscles.

These combined factors can lead to cramping elsewhere in the body, often in the stomach, because your digestive system uses fluids and electrolytes to store nutrients and create waste. When dehydration sets in, constipation can occur since your body doesn’t have enough water to create stool. This can lead to stomach cramps, bloating, and abdominal pain.

If you’re wondering how to rehydrate and get rid of these symptoms, you’ll need more than just increase water intake. When you’re dehydrated, your body doesn’t have the right balance of electrolytes.

Dehydration can cause mineral depletion, including decreases in calcium, potassium, and magnesium. These electrolytes play a key role in muscle function. When you suffer from an electrolyte imbalance, dehydration sets in and your leg muscles can cramp. To help recover from mild dehydration symptoms like cramping, adding an electrolyte drink mix to water can help speed up this recovery.

How to Recognize Dehydration

Dehydration occurs when you don’t get enough water and electrolytes. It’s sometimes caused by medical conditions that affect the kidneys and thyroid. It can also be exacerbated by certain medications.

The most common causes of dehydration include not drinking enough fluids, excessive sweating, and heat-related illnesses like heat stroke and heat exhaustion. This is why it’s important to drink water and replenish electrolytes while exercising and avoid working out outside if the temperature is too high.

When you sweat, you secrete water and salt to the surface of your skin. There, it evaporates to create a cooling effect. If you don’t replace these lost fluids and electrolytes fast, you may become dehydrated. It’s vital to manage hydration throughout the day, especially when you engage in physical activity in cold or hot weather that raises your body temperature.

You can also get dehydration when you’re sick or have gastroenteritis. Dehydration risk is elevated if you’re vomiting, have severe diarrhea, or a high fever.

While anyone can become dehydrated, older people and young children experience dehydration at higher rates.

Older adults with ailments like Crohn’s disease and other digestive disorders may have a higher risk of dehydration cramps. People who take diuretics like medications for high blood pressure are at increased risk of dehydration. That’s because diuretics can change the concentration of electrolytes like sodium and potassium. That also means an increased risk of dehydration cramps.

Here are some signs of dehydration to watch out for:

• Dry mouth or dry skin
• Rapid heart rate
• Decreased urination or difficulty peeing
• Constipation
• Involuntary muscle contractions
• Fatigue and muscle weakness

To fend off and manage dehydration cramps, you need to address your hydration levels. If you have signs of severe dehydration like sunken eyes, fainting, or confusion, seek medical attention from a qualified healthcare professional immediately.

How to Manage Dehydration Cramps

Dehydration cramps can be uncomfortable, and they can reduce performance and increase the risk of injury, whether you’re working out or hard at work on a job site. By staying hydrated, you can manage dehydration and avoid muscle cramps and stomach cramps.

Dehydration is a leading cause of muscle cramps. Thus, the best way to avoid dehydration cramps is to avoid dehydration in the first place. If you think dehydration is causing your muscle or stomach cramps, you can remedy the situation by addressing the dehydration directly.

Fight Dehydration Cramps with DripDrop

Dehydration cramps can affect your daily routine. Chronic dehydration and cramps can lead to muscle tissue damage in the affected muscle and other side effects. Staying hydrated can fend off dehydration cramps and other signs of dehydration. At the first signs of dehydration cramps, reach for a remedy like DripDrop.

DripDrop’s electrolyte mix will help your body restore the balance of sodium and glucose to help absorption. With the precisely balanced ratio in DripDrop’s patented formula, you can replenish vital electrolytes and fluids to relieve dehydration quickly.

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Causes and treatment of leg cramps Irkutsk

Home / Causes and treatment of leg cramps

Leg cramps are quite an unpleasant and often painful phenomenon, which is not so rare for a modern person. Most often, this disease affects the elderly, as well as pregnant women and athletes. But, even if you are not included in any of their risk categories, no one can give you a guarantee that the convulsive syndrome will bypass you completely.

Essentially leg cramp is a severe muscle spasm when a person cannot even lean on a limb. The muscle tissue itself becomes very elastic to the touch. Everything can be affected – from the foot to the thigh muscles, but the most common syndrome is a spasm of the calf muscles. Almost everyone has experienced such a manifestation at least once in their life, but if convulsions become constant, painful and significantly affect the quality of life, this is a reason to contact a specialist and start treating leg cramps .

Causes of leg cramps

With a certain degree of dehydration, when the body loses potassium, calcium, zinc and copper, a convulsive syndrome occurs. Carefully monitor the level of water you drink, also on very hot days and with increased sweating. Dehydration cramps signal dangerously low electrolyte levels, so don’t ignore the symptoms.
Mineral deficiency can also cause discomfort in the legs. So, a low amount of calcium and magnesium in the body prevents the normal conduction of nerve impulses by the muscles, which leads to convulsions. Try to eat a balanced diet, do not consume a lot of caffeine and sugar. Also, if for some reason you are prescribed a certain class of drugs that prevent the absorption of calcium in the body, consult your doctor and he will prescribe you additional vitamin complexes.
Another reason for poor absorption of calcium is the protein type of food or protein diets. If you think that you need to lose weight and plan to stick to just such a diet, do not forget to take a multivitamin, which will not only prevent cramps, but also have a general strengthening effect on the body.
Short-term cramps in the legs also occur with sudden hypothermia, for example, when immersing the limbs in cold water. A sharp physical load without proper preparation and warm-up of the muscles is fraught with consequences. Even severe stress, which leads to a loss of potassium in the body, can cause such an unpleasant phenomenon as convulsions.
If all of the above reasons are excluded, and convulsive attacks continue – consult a doctor about diabetes, varicose veins, or find out about the condition and functioning of your thyroid gland. There are also a number of diseases, the symptoms of which may be leg cramps , but the diagnosis can only be made by a specialist after a comprehensive examination.

Night cramps in the legs

Such an unpleasant phenomenon as leg cramps at night, can bring not only short-term discomfort, but also cause insomnia. You can feel spasms if you suddenly change the position of the body. Even after the cramp has passed, muscle pain can be disturbing for a long time. Elderly people are at increased risk, as the sensitivity of nerve endings increases with age. Particular attention should be paid to this, since spasms of the lower extremities may indicate developing thrombosis.

Leg cramps in pregnant women

Restless legs syndrome, one of the components of which is night cramps of the limbs, is a common occurrence among pregnant women. A constantly growing uterus affects the blood flow in the lower extremities, and calf cramps are often accompanied by tingling, pain in the hips, a constant desire to change position during rest, the need to move the legs to avoid all these symptoms. Naturally, with such sensations, there can be no talk of a full-fledged sleep, which is so important for a woman during pregnancy.
Since medications are very limited during the gestation period, doctors usually recommend warm, relaxing foot baths with herbs (valerian root, mint). Remember about a balanced diet – the need for vitamins and minerals increases, so eat fish, greens, vegetables, dairy products in sufficient quantities. A pregnant woman should also give up shoes with heels – they also provoke leg cramps.

Treatment of leg cramps

Very often seizures are taken by surprise and can cause panic. In order to alleviate your condition, take a sitting position, lower your limbs to the floor – after a short time the spasm will pass.
Massage from the fingers to the knees helps to restore the blood supply. In some cases, pinching or tingling helps to quickly relieve a cramp.
When dealing with a similar problem to the doctor, the first thing you will be advised is to review the diet, diversify the diet with foods containing magnesium, potassium, calcium. From non-drug methods of treatment, relaxing exercises and massage will also help. Before going to bed, contrast foot baths will help relieve tension in the legs. Giving up uncomfortable shoes and limiting physical activity will also make your life much easier. Be attentive to your body, monitor all symptoms and seek medical attention in time treatment for leg cramps see a specialist.

Cramps in the calf: causes, treatment and prevention

“Cramps in the legs” is a household description of painful muscle spasms and cramps in the lower extremities. In some cases, spasms are not accompanied by pain, but only rapid rhythmic muscle contractions are observed. Muscles twitch chaotically, either contracting or relaxing.

Leg cramps develop as a result of various diseases and conditions, from electrolyte disorders to neurological disorders and hormonal imbalances. Therapists, neurologists, endocrinologists, phlebologists, etc. are engaged in the diagnosis and treatment of the causes of leg cramps (spasms themselves are not a disease), etc. It all depends on the nature of the problem.

Causes of cramps

Involuntary muscle contractions (cramps in the legs) are a symptom of various diseases and pathological conditions. In healthy people, painful spasms occur against the background of excessive physical exertion, uncomfortable body position, unsuccessful movement, but in such cases, convulsions do not recur. In diseases, a repetition of episodes is possible, as well as an increase in symptoms.

Crampy syndrome

Crampy develops against the background of a number of diseases (avitaminosis, liver cirrhosis, neurological disorders, etc.), hypothermia, intense physical exertion. The exact reasons are unknown.

The disease is accompanied by short-term muscle spasms in the calves. The intensity of convulsions in the lower extremities is different, the pain syndrome is pronounced. Most of the attacks occur at night.

Treatment is aimed at eliminating the cause of the pathology, as well as stopping the symptom. Doctors prescribe vitamins, minerals, anti-inflammatory drugs.

Flat feet

In flat feet, spasms of the lower extremities develop in response to uneven load distribution. Legs cramp during activity, less often at rest.

Spasms develop suddenly. Muscle contractions last from a few seconds to several minutes. After the attack, severe discomfort persists.

Treatment – orthopedic. The task is to achieve the correct distribution of the load on the lower limbs. Rarely resort to surgical correction.

Vascular diseases

Spasms (painful contractions) affecting the calf muscles occur in response to hypoxia and impaired energy metabolism in tissues. Seizures also develop as a result of such pathologies:

• varicose disease;
• endarteritis;
• atherosclerosis;
• thrombosis.

The clinical picture is complemented by sensations of heaviness and pressure in the legs. The phlebologist is engaged in the treatment of such conditions. Its task is to restore blood flow, venous-lymphatic outflow, eliminate inflammation, etc.

Endocrine diseases

Leg cramps are typical for thyroid pathologies (hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, hypoparathyroidism, diabetes mellitus). Diabetes insipidus can be an indirect cause, since the patient loses a lot of fluid, and with it, electrolytes.

Clinic depends on the cause of seizures. Treatment is the task of the endocrinologist. It is carried out with the help of medications, replacement therapy is also indicated. According to the situation, surgical treatment is carried out (tumors, tissue injuries).

Fluid and electrolyte disorders

Cramps (painful contractions in the legs) may be a symptom of a deficiency or excess of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium. Seizures occur spontaneously and often recur. Seizures develop at night and last up to several minutes.

Treatment is the work of a therapist or other specialist (depending on the cause of the disorder). Restoration of electrolyte balance is carried out with the help of drugs, a therapeutic diet.

Hypovitaminosis

Most often, leg cramps develop in response to a lack of vitamins B1, B2, B6, D. Hypovitaminosis is accompanied by additional symptoms: reduced sensitivity of the lower extremities, burning in the legs, insomnia, dry skin, decreased vision, immunity. It all depends on the specific pathology.

Treatment is the work of the therapist. It is necessary to eliminate the primary disease, restore the level of vitamins and minerals in the body.

Intoxication

Convulsions are possible in case of poisoning with salts of heavy metals, vapors of volatile substances. Most often suffer laboratory workers, employees of hazardous enterprises. Intoxication occurs when using poisonous plants: belladonna, fly agaric, ergot. However, drugs are more often to blame. Painful muscle spasms develop as a side effect of certain medications.

Spasms occur after the influence of a substance on the body. Muscle contractions can be persistent – it can be difficult to remove them even in a hospital setting. Treatment – detoxification with drugs, observation. Many poisonings are life-threatening.

Pathologies of pregnancy

Muscle cramps may occur in pregnant women. Often cramps of the calf muscles develop as a result of hypovitaminosis, electrolyte imbalance. There are more threatening conditions: inferior vena cava syndrome, eclampsia.

Patients with recurrent muscle spasms are managed by OB/GYNs. They figure out why the problem has developed, prescribe treatment.

Other causes

There are other factors that cause cramps in the legs. Other causes of calf spasms include:

• alcohol intoxication;
• high body temperature;
• tumors of the central nervous system and endocrine system;
• jumps in blood pressure;
• traumatic brain injury;
• infections;
• dehydration;
• heat stroke.

This also includes leg injuries. Less commonly, the symptom occurs due to anemia.

Night cramps in the legs

Spasms at night develop with varicose veins, lack of trace elements, vitamins. They also occur with intense physical exertion, wearing uncomfortable shoes. There are more serious causes of night cramps. For example, epilepsy. To put an end to the question, you need to undergo an examination.

Why does the calf cramps – doctors should understand. The reasons are not always obvious. It is possible to understand why a symptom developed only after a thorough diagnosis. Diagnosis is by sighting or exclusion.

First aid for cramps in the legs

First aid is aimed at relieving an attack. To get rid of cramps, you need to:

• raise your legs above head level;
• pull the toe up;
• if it doesn’t help, do a light massage of the calves and feet.

Actions to be repeated until improvement. After stabilization of the condition, it is worth taking a warm bath and moving around a little.

Diagnostics

The doctor evaluates complaints, collects anamnesis, prescribes general and biochemical blood and urine tests, if necessary, performs a toxicological test. An important role is played by instrumental research methods for establishing the cause of spasms: electromyography, EEG, ultrasound of the vessels of the lower extremities, MRI of the brain, organs of the endocrine system, etc.

Treatment

Treatment can be conservative or surgical. Surgical methods are used in rare cases.

Conservative therapy

Conservative treatment includes medication, physiotherapy, massage, exercise therapy. Relieve an attack, there is little tension in the muscles during convulsions. If nothing is done about the cause of the symptom, a relapse is likely. Attacks can be repeated and become more frequent. Medicines are selected individually.

Surgical treatment

Surgical treatment is possible with flat feet, varicose veins, vascular diseases, tumors. Surgical care is an extreme measure that is needed to restore the normal functioning of the body.

Prevention

There is no single approach to prevention, it all depends on the underlying disease. General recommendations might be:

• eat right;
• avoid hypothermia;
• avoid dehydration;
• give the body moderate physical activity, do not sit in one place;
• wear comfortable shoes;
• do not take drugs without a doctor’s prescription (especially diuretics, cardiac, hormonal).